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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Happy Paper Players Sunday, friends! Anne Marie has a fun Tic-Tac-Toe challenge for us this week. Just pick any three options up, down or diagonally to create your project:

You might be able to tell from the title of this post that I went with the top row: Christmas, Sparkle/Bling and Ribbon.

And there's a lot of bling on this one! I love silver and gold for the Holidays and with this simple color palette and the aid of the Ornament Keepsakes Bundle stamp and coordinating Framelits, this card came together super quick! The Crumb Cake base is a subtle match to the gold and I topped it with some embossed Very Vanilla (I wish SU didn't retire this folder!)and a flagged banner of Silver Glimmer paper. More sparkle, anyone? :-)

These ornaments are so pretty and simple to make with the coordinating Framelits. I love how the extra little center piece nestles in there and gives it a vintage look. A small piece of Very Vanilla 1/4" grosgrain ribbon becomes an ornament holder and I added a little knot with a glue dot.

I hope you will join us this week for Anne Marie's fun challenge at The Paper Players before Friday, October 5th at Noon (PST). Be sure to check out the fabulous projects from the rest of the Design Team ladies, they hit it out of the park!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Hiya friends, and welcome to another week at The Paper Players! Glad you joined me today for the oh-so-talented Ann's fantastic sketch challenge. Check it:

I really like this sketch (thanks, Ann!) and right away I knew two things 1) I wanted to make a tulle ribbon flower after watching this fabulous video from Kimberly Van Diepen and 2) that I wanted to use this Crumb Cake dsp from the Festival of Prints designer series paper stack. With those two things in mind, and the sketch at the ready, here's what developed in my craft room:

It is kind of interesting to see where I end up as this was not really in my mind's eye but I like it and I think it's fitting for a challenge hosted by Ann, our queen of vintage shabilicous-ness! I used Early Espresso Core-dinations cardstock embossed with the Fancy Fan folder and distressed with a sanding block. On the oval, I stamped a flourish from Creative Elements in Crumb Cake along with an Early Espresso sentiment from Bring on the Cake.

The fun part was making this flower with rolled Cherry Cobbler Tulle Ribbon-it's so easy with the Jumbo Sticky Rounds. Just roll, press and voila! A beautiful tulle flower. Of course, as this is Ann's challenge, I had to add some Basic Pearls to the tulle. :-)

I had so much fun making this card for Ann's challenge....I hope that you will consider joining us too! Be sure to check out the rest of the Design Team for some fabulous inspiration. Then...join us before Friday, September 28th at Noon (PDT) when the challenge closes.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Happy Sunday, friends, and welcome to another week with The Paper Players! I am delighted to be this week's hostess for our monthly Clean and Simple challenge. I think it's a fun one:

Banners! They've been trendy for awhile now--possibly eclipsed by hexagons & chevrons--but, personally, I haven't tired of them. I can't seem to make a card without at least one flagged end somewhere! I went uber clean-and-simple with my project(s) for this challenge. So simple that I actually made 5 cards! Here's the one that I featured over at The Paper Players:

I apologize, in advance, for the picture-heavy post but I couldn't get a good shot of all 5 together so here we go:

The Bitty Banners Framelits worked overtime in my stamp room today. 6 banners on each card!

But I discovered that the Framelits will cut two sheets of our designer paper so I only had to crank the Big Shot 3 times...for each card, lol!

This one is fun because I "dyed" the Whisper White Baker's Twine with a Summer Starfruit marker. How cool is that? If you're impatient like me, be sure to let it dry for a few minutes before working with it. What happens if you don't wait? You get slimy looking trails of Summer Starfruit on your card that aren't very pretty! But I wouldn't know anything about that. ;-)

Whew! If you're still with me, congratulations! I just had to show you all of them. Especially because I only used ONE stamp set! All of these great sentiments came from Seasonal Sayings found in the Holiday Mini. Love the versatility of the set and the generous size of the stamps. I knew that this set would be the star of the show! Assembly is pretty obvious with the Seasonal Sayings stamp set and Bitty Banners Framelits but a complete list of papers and colors is at the end of this post.

I hope I've inspired you to play it "Clean-and-Simple with Banners" this week! I would love for you to join us at The Paper Players. Just to make sure to load up your banner-ific creations by Friday, September 21st at Noon (PST). Before you go, pop on over to all my gal pals on the Design Team to see what kind of beautiful bannersthey've created:

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Hiya friends! I had a rare moment to stamp just for enjoyment and I couldn't resist the color challenge, and the inspiration, over at my friend Lesley's blog Dynamic Duos. I was particularly inspired by my pals Anne Marie's gorgeous fall creation.

I might be the last person in the blog world who hasn't played along with the fun new Fab Friday Challenge so I'm sneaking this one under the wire over there too. Love that their challenges run for two weeks!

We needed a birthday card for my daughter's teacher and I thought these colors and some fall leaves were perfect for a seasonal masculine card:

Always a favorite, the two-step leaves from Gently Falling look gorgeous just in one color. I inked the leaf in Always Artichoke and stamped off once before stamping on the paper. Going over it full-strength in the same color just a wonderful water colored look and adds so much dimension. I did the same with the acorn in Cajun Craze, stamping off once and full-strength for the outline.

I added a little background stamping with the script and water spots from French Foliage in Sahara Sand to match the card base.

One more of each element carries over the design to the inside and I added this great sentiment from a new-to-me set, One in a Million. It's actually two separate stamps but they look like one when stamped close together and in the same color. I love that SU is getting more sets like this one that provide a companion sentiment for the inside too. Love stamping the inside! But you knew that, right?! :-)That's it for me folks...thanks for stopping by today!SuppliesStamps: Gently Falling, French Foliage, Once in a Million, Itty Bitty BannersInk: Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke, Sahara SandPaper: Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla CS; retired DSP in Always ArtichokeXtras: Square Lattice EF; Crumb Cake corduroy button [retired]; Linen Thread; Itty Bitty Banner framelits

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Hiya, friends, and welcome to another week with The Paper Players. It's color challenge week and Lesley has some gorgeous colors for us. Take a look:

Yummy! When I saw these colors, I knew right away that I wanted to make a Christmas card with the Evergreen set. Taking an advance peek at my team mates' projects, I see I wasn't the only one! I paired the colors with Cindy's great design at Freshly Made Sketches:

And, here's what I made for you:

Had to laugh at myself...last week I had blue leaves and this week it's the whole tree! Love this two-step Evergreen stamp and the way the solid tree looks in Baja Breeze. The outline stamp was inked in Versamark and heat embossed in silver...pretty!

I did even more embossing on the background to really make the texture pop. First I inked one side of the Lacy Brocade embossing folder with a Versamark pad--just smeared it directly on the folder. Then, I ran it through the Big Shot with a piece of textured Basic Gray cardstock. Next, I sprinkled it with clear embossing powder and set it with the heat gun. Voila! Glossy embossed cardstock! Trimmed it out with a little silver glimmer paper and we've got sparkle AND shine!

I struggled with whether to add a sentiment on the front and opted to go without. However, the inside is the perfect size for a yuletide sentiment from Greetings of the Season. And, of course, one more [blue] tree! I hope that my blue holiday tree has inspired you to look at your stamps in a new way and come out to play! We would love to see you in the gallery at The Paper Players. Just make sure to load your crafty goodness before the challenge closes on Friday, September 14th at Noon (PST).

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Hi everyone! Happy Labor Day weekend to my friends in the U.S. North America and happy Sunday to everyone else. I can't believe it's September 2nd already, can you? Fortunately, Jaydee has the perfect theme challenge to usher in a new month:

Trees or leaves--YAY! Normally, I love working with both of them but I think my mojo must have fallen along with the leaves coz it just wasn't coming together for me. Anywhoooo, here we go:

I started by stamping all the leaves from the Gently Falling set and fussy cutting them. The colors were inspired by my pack of Orchard Harvest DSP: Lucky Limeade, More Mustard, Raspberry Ripple and Island Indigo. Yep, Island Indigo! I love using colors in unexpected ways! Who says I can't have a blue leaf?! My card is pretty straightforward--nothing fancy--and you'll find a complete supply list at the end of this post. I do love the way the Scalloped Tulle Ribbon looks bunched and tied onto a Naturals Button with Linen Thread. And that woodgrain embossing folder....swoon!

Be sure to pop over to the rest of The Paper Players design team to see what these talented gals have conjured up this week...it's always something fantastic! Jaydee's fabulous fall challenge will close on Friday, September 7th at Noon (PST) so be sure to join in the fun before then!Also, a big thank you to everyone who left a comment on my daughter's blog this past week. She was thrilled and delighted with each one and I thank you for making her day brighter with your visit! Crafters are the nicest people! I hope you have a great day!

Welcome to the Canopy!

I'm glad you stopped under the shade of my stampin' tree. Card making is a creative outlet that makes me happy and gives me a break from the craziness of everyday life. Kind of like steppin' into the canopy of a big oak tree on a hot Florida day. Thanks for visiting! All supplies are from Stampin' Up!, unless otherwise noted. nleedy@cox.net

Copyright

All images are copyright Stampin Up!. The content of my blog is my responsibility as an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator and not endorsed by Stampin' Up! All designs are copyright Nance Leedy, 2009-2015. I share them to inspire and foster creative collaboration. They may not be copied for publication or contests. Thanks for your cooperation!